Politics

House Democrats Announce Two Separate Articles Of Impeachment

(Photo by Toya Sarno Jordan/Getty Images)

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House Democrats announced two separate articles of impeachment Tuesday against President Donald Trump.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Democratic Committee chairman announced that they would file one article of impeachment accusing the president of abuse of power, and another accusing him of obstruction of Congress. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler claimed that Trump has endangered America’s democracy and national security. (RELATED: Impeachment Proceedings Usually Move Swiftly, But Democrats Are Playing It Slow)

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“Our President holds the ultimate public trust,” Nadler said. “When he betrays that trust, and puts himself before country, he endangers the Constitution, he endangers our democracy, and he endangers our national security.”

The announcement came following several weeks of public impeachment hearings conducted by the Judiciary and Intelligence Committees as part of House Democrats’ formal impeachment inquiry into the president over a July phone call he conducted with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. (RELATED: The Tide Is Turning Against Democrats On Impeachment)

On the phone call, Trump discussed Vice President Joe Biden’s  son Hunter’s position on the board of Burisma holdings, a Ukrainian energy company. Trump has expressed concern about widespread corruption in Ukraine, but Democrats have accused the president of withholding aid to the country in exchange for an investigation into Biden, who is considered a front-runner for the Democratic Party’s 2020 presidential nomination.

While articles of impeachment were officially unveiled Tuesday, speculation about impeachment has captivated Washington D.C. throughout Trump’s presidency. Pelosi initially dismissed calls from members of her caucus to impeach the president in the aftermath of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report, saying Trump was “not worth it.”

However, Pelosi ultimately relented after a whistleblower complaint related to Trump and Zelensky’s phone call became public. Pelosi officially launched an impeachment inquiry in September, and House Democrats formalized the inquiry the next month. While Pelosi has expressed a desire for impeachment to be bipartisan, zero Republicans voted to open the inquiry, and two Democrats voted against it.